Chapter 38 The Stormy Sixties1960–1968.

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2 President John F. Kennedy and His Wife, Jacqueline Bouvier KennedyShown here leaving the White House to attend a series of inaugural balls in January 1961, the young and vibrant first couple brought beauty, style, and grace to the presidency.Cornell Capa/ Magnum Photos

4 Failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, 1961The Cuban foreign minister showed United Nations delegates photographs of arms he said the United States had supplied for the Bay of Pigs invasion on April 17. The debacle was one of several unsuccessful American efforts to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro.Edward Hausner/ NYT Pictures

8 President Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)Dedicated and hard-working, Johnson saw his presidency shattered by the trauma of Vietnam. By the end of his term, he was so unpopular that he could find non-heckling audiences only on military bases or navy ships.Black Star/ Stockphoto.com

9 Presidential Election of 1964States are distorted according to the number of electoral votes indicated on each state. In New Orleans, toward the end of the campaign, a gutsy Johnson displayed his commitment to civil rights when he told a story about an old senator who once said of his Deep South constituents, “I would like to go back down there and make them just one more Democratic speech The poor old State, they haven’t heard a Democratic speech in 30 years. All they hear at election time is Negro, Negro, Negro!” Johnson’s open voicing of sentiments like this contributed heavily to his losses in the traditionally Democratic “solid South.”Copyright (c) Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved.

10 Giving Thanks for MedicareAn elderly woman showed her gratitude to President Lyndon B. Johnson for his signing of the Medicare bill in April 1965, providing basic medical care for the aged. In tribute to former president Truman’s unsuccessful effort to pass a national medical insurance program twenty years earlier, Johnson flew to Truman’s Missouri home to sign the bill that he claimed would deliver “care for the sick and serenity for the fearful.” No one acknowledged that Truman’s earlier plan had been much more comprehensive or that Johnson, then a young Texas congressman, had opposed it.Corbis

11 Poverty in the United States, 1960–2001The poverty rate for 2001 (11.7 percent) increased slightly over 2000, when it hit its lowest point since 1979, at 11.3 percent. These figures refer to the number of people who live in families whose total income is lower than a set “poverty threshold,” which is tied to the consumer price index, so it varies with inflation. The “poverty rate” means the percentage of all Americans living below that threshold.Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Survey, and Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2003.

15 Antiwar Demonstration in CaliforniaPublic opinion gradually but inexorably turned against the war. In 1965 polls showed that only 15 percent of Americans favored withdrawal from Vietnam. But by 1969, 69 percent of those interviewed indicated that they considered the war a “mistake,” and by 1970 a majority supported withdrawal of U.S. troops.Bob Fitchok/ Black Star/ Stockphoto.com

16 The Vietnam QuagmireThis soldier, carrying a rocket launcher across a stream in the ironically named “demilitarized zone” (DMZ) that separated North and South Vietnam, was killed in action just days after this photo was taken.Larry Burrows/ Time & Life Pictures/ Getty Images

17 President Lyndon Johnson Haunted by Specters of Vietnam, 1967While Johnson's Great Society programs might have garnered him a position as one of the most effective presidents in the history of the United States, his inability to maneuver America's involvement in the incredibly unpopular Vietnam War tarnished his reputation, shackled his ability to lead effectively, and finally led him to not even seek a second term in the White House.Paul Szep from Hulton Archive/ Getty Images

18 Robert F. Kennedy Campaigning for the Presidency, 1968Wrapped in the Kennedy family mystique and exuding his own boyish charm, Kennedy excited partisan crowds to wildly adulatory outpourings.Black Star/ Stockphoto.com

20 Presidential Election of 1968 (with electoral vote by state)George Wallace won in five states, and he denied a clear majority to either of the two major-party candidates in twenty-five other states. A shift of some fifty thousand votes might well have thrown the election into the House of Representatives, giving Wallace the strategic bargaining position he sought.Copyright (c) Houghton Mifflin Company. All Rights Reserved.

21 The First Gay Pride Parade, New York City, 1970On the first anniversary of homosexuals’ celebrated resistance to police harassment at the Stonewall Inn, on June 27, 1969, two hundred men and women marched from Greenwich Village to Central Park, initiating a tradition that now attracts thousands of paraders and onlookers, including prominent politicians.Michael Evans/ NYT Pictures